


Joy Ride, Part One

by springhorton



Category: The Expanse (TV)
Genre: Fluff and Smut, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, OT3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-09-22 07:16:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9590891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springhorton/pseuds/springhorton
Summary: Joe still has feelings for Julie and those feelings are getting him into trouble everywhere. Alex talks too much, but Amos lets him get away with it because he's so cute. It's a good thing. When Joe gets into more trouble than he can handle on Tycho Station, Amos and Alex decide to rescue him. What follows is even more trouble when the three decide to "borrow" a ship, go joyriding, break down in the middle of space, and have nothing better to do than...well, you get the idea.





	1. Chapter 1

“Is that how your momma taught you?”- Alex Kamal, probably

Joe Miller wasn’t exactly what you would call subtle. Perhaps there had been a time when he was as stealthy as one of the street urchins who grew up in the back alleys of Cere. Hell, he’d been one once. But things were different now. He’d seen everything he’d known slowly fall apart. He’d let someone in; someone he didn’t even know, and it had crushed him, someone else had had dumped a ton of living blue goo on Eros, Mars and Earth were on the brink of destroying one another, and he was currently working for the Butcher of Anderson station. What a time to be alive. 

He’d thought pachinko would be a welcome distraction, even if it did remind him of almost being irradiated to death and the childhood best friend one of his crew mates had recently killed. Needless to say, it hadn’t gone well. He was currently screaming at a machine that he’d bet his life had cheated him. His life wasn’t worth much to him at the moment so he felt it was a perfectly fair bet. Still, other patrons, and especially the proprietor, were beginning to take issue at his grievances.

Miller stepped back from the machine with a vicious smile and a flop of his hair. The situation was starting to look very unpretty.

Amos Burton’s posture said, “Why?” and his face even more clearly said, “Do I look like I care?” To his amazement, though, this did nothing to deter Alex Kamal. It never did. He’d tried varying looks of annoyance, anger, and boredom in the time they’d known each other, but it was no use.

“You have to admit, they’re all valid issues,” Alex was saying. “That’s what makes it so rough. You know the Belters have been treated like second class citizens and that Earth has slowed down Mars’ progress. Why, there’s this little valley near where I grew up-“

Amos quickly turned to Alex, leaned in close, and growled, “I’m going to kiss you right here, in front of all these people, if that’s what it takes to shut you up.”

Alex blushed deeply, but it did the trick. His mouth clamped shut and he glanced around before taking a big gulp of his drink.

Amos smirked to himself and went back to his own glass. He knew it wouldn’t actually last long; Alex had too much personality for that. Before the pilot could start up his philosophizing though, a commotion in the back of the room caught their attention.

“What the hell is that racket?” Alex wondered.

“It’s Miller,” Amos answered with a shrug.

“What’s he going on about?”

“When’s he not bitching and moaning about something? His best friend…his imaginary girlfriend.”

“You know, you can be a real son of a bitch sometimes,” Alex said as he got up to help their crew mate.

“That’s not what you said last night,” Amos called after him and then, with a sigh, got up to join in. He never walked away from a good barfight anyway.


	2. Joy Ride, Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After fleeing the fight, Alex finds a quiet spot for the three of them to relax, but things may not go as he'd planned.

Miller was used to bullies, but watching Amos beat down on the group that had ganged up on them made him realize that this was who you gave your money to. Amos was the kid you paid to beat up the bullies. He was perfectly capable and, at the same time, seemed wholly disinterested.

Kaka falota, he thought to himself and then Alex grabbed their arms and pulled the out of there before anyone got killed. It had been an amazing thing to behold though. “You sure you didn’t wanna stay a little longer?” he quipped and then grimaced a little at the look on Amos’ face. He’d been on the other end of the tough guy’s wrath before. Though wrath wasn’t really the right word. Amos hadn’t even broken a sweat. Hell, he’d never even gotten angry. He’d simply finished a fight Miller had started and been in no position to finish.

If he wasn’t sure what to make of that one, he really didn’t know what to think of Alex. He’d flinched, a lot, while Amos was doing his thing, yet here he was, still hanging around. In fact, it seemed he spent most of his free time with Amos. Miller wondered if the man owed Amos something or if, maybe, there was something else going on.

“So, boys, where are we going?” he finally asked, starting to feel a bit winded from the fast march.

“Somewhere away from people,” Alex answered.

“Sounds great to me,” Miller admitted. On the downside, he couldn’t think of anywhere on Tycho where there wouldn’t be people. It wasn’t like Ceres. Oh, he imagined it had its inner workings; water recyclers, air recyclers, but it was nothing like the vast rock that made up his home station. For a moment, he actually found himself missing the place. After a while though, he was pulled from his reverie by the realization that they weren’t headed into the inner workings or even a residential area. They seemed to be headed for…

“The docks? The docks’ll be crawling with people.”

“I think he feels more at home there,” Amos muttered in his ear.

“We’re just gonna…find a quiet ship and…sit a while,” Alex said, as if reciting a mantra to himself.

“He gets like this sometimes,” Amos added, sounding eerily like the sane one.

“You know, I never thought I’d say this,” Miller mumbled, “but I think you boys have been out here too long.”

A wide grin crossed Amos’ face and it may have creeped Miller out more than the neutral death stare. Still, he cautiously smiled back. Pashang if he wasn’t starting to like the guy.

Once they’d hit the docks, Alex made a beeline for a ship he somehow knew would be empty for the night. As they crept on board, Miller looked around the tiny vessel and then said, “So, we’re stealing a ship?”

“What!” Alex screeched. “No!”

But Amos had turned to Miller with a mischievous grin. “Yeah,” he seconded.

“No, no, no. We were just gonna have some quiet time, pahdna.”

“Yeah,” Amos said again, turning to the horrified Alex.

Behind them, Miller crossed his arms and began to chuckle.


End file.
